Human movement has fallen everywhere because of the coronavirus crisis. Big ships and boats have stopped plying the sea, and fewer fishing trawlers are going out. With this opportunity, various marine animals are roaming the Bay of Bengal. A few days ago, rare dolphins were seen playing off Cox's Bazar beach. Now a whale has been seen at the tourist-free Cox's Bazar coast.

A small whale was seen at Marish Bunia, next to the embankment in the Bordeil area of Teknaf upazila in Cox's Bazar. The whale, of the Bryde's whale species, got stuck on the beach while playing. Local people thought it was an unfamiliar kind of dolphin and pushed it back into the sea.

The whale came up onto the beach from the deep sea on 20 June. At first everyone thought it was a dolphin or a rare sea fish. After seeing a video, wildlife experts told Jagonews24 on Sunday (21 June) that it was a Bryde's whale.

ANM Moazzem Hossain, chairman of Save the Nature of Bangladesh, gave a different date. "On 14 June, Jalal Uddin Chowdhury, our organisation's Teknaf upazila general secretary, saw this whale on Teknaf beach, thought it was a dolphin and phoned me. But after collecting the recorded video on Sunday and looking at its fins and belly, we were sure it was not a dolphin but a Bryde's whale. The video of its fins, red belly and breathing out from the side of its head was shown to wildlife experts. They confirmed to us that it is a sea whale, called a Bryde's whale," he said.

He added that it was a whale calf. The presence of a calf near the shore means the mother whale is nearby, so everyone at sea should be careful, he said.

Environmental journalist Hossain Sohel said he had been to the Swatch of No Ground in the Bay of Bengal several times for reporting, and last saw a whale family there two years ago. The whale that came to the Teknaf coast resembles the whales he saw there, although the Swatch of No Ground is far from Teknaf. Perhaps this whale wandered there while playing, he said.

Supriyo Chakma, former marine programme manager of the Wildlife Conservation Society, told Jagonews24 it was a whale. There are records of whales in the belt from Teknaf to St Martin's, including records from a 2018 survey. This whale is called a Bryde's whale. There is no record of a live whale coming onto the beach, but this time one has been recorded, he said.

Prof Mostafa Firoz of the zoology department at Jahangirnagar University told Jagonews24 he was sure from the video that it was a whale. An adult whale is about 30 to 40 feet long; the one at Teknaf would be about 10 feet long, he said.

Because of the ongoing coronavirus crisis, ships, boats and trawlers have stopped moving at sea, and with no people around, the whale came to the beach, he said. "During the coronavirus period we have seen all animals, freed from human harassment, moving about as they please. Dolphins came to the beach before this. The arrival of this whale is proof that animals can live their own way if they get a little relief."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.